1. Look up your local federal health clinic, they will treat you for free or whatever you can afford. http://findahealthcenter.hrsa.gov/
2. Go to a Catholic-owned Mercy hospital and explain you will not be able to pay the bill. Mercy hospitals forgive debts, they do not send collectors out against E/R visiting patients.
3. Go to a county-operated hospital and just ignore the bill when it comes. (This is the worst option, because of the risk of debt collectors).

I broke the distal end of the radius (the break that happens when you fall and reflexively put your hand out to break the fall.) It swelled, became very distorted, turned blue and was really painful….all this within 60 seconds. It was easy to know that something nasty had happened.

I used to think that not being able to move a joint meant a broken bone, but then my son broke his wrist playing football. His wrist hurt and was slightly swollen but he could still use it and bend it. He even kept on playing with it, saying it hurt but wasn’t too bad. I was very surprised because usually he is a real wuss about pain.

However, it didn’t get better over the next several days so we went to the doctor and got an X-ray. Yup, sure enough, it was broken! Like @gailcalled, he broke the distal end of the radius, but unlike her he had no black and blue marks, his wrist wasn’t distorted, and it hurt but not as much as we would have expected.

In other words, if you think it might be broken or if it doesn’t get better within a few days, get an X-ray. In any case, if it really, really hurts, don’t wait. Go ahead and get the X-ray.

@casheroo & @Darwin My grandfather once had a steel I-beam fall onto his foot. It hurt a bit, but he still hopped on his bike and pedaled successfuly to the hospital several miles from his place of work. The x-rays confirmed that every bone in his foot was broken (small surprise!)

It’s funny that I asked the question if it’s able to be moved. Now that I think of it I think after 2 of my injuries I wasn’t able to move it. My collar bone was snapped in 2 places and it was only when I tried to retrieve my skateboard with that arm I found it couldn’t move and the pain hit. The other was my thumb. I was playing frisbee and fell on it just right don’t ask, lol and it broke.
The injuries I was able to move with.. I broke my left big toe twice, the right 1 once, 2 ribs & hairline fractured my other thumb.

I recently sprained my ankle really badly. It like turned completely over and cracked really loud. I went to the ER for an X-Ray and they said there was an old break in there, but it wasn’t currently broken. I’d never had a broken ankle that I knew of. I thought about it for days before I remembered that the night before senior prom I turned my ankle and it swelled huge, was green and purple and hurt like hell. I was too busy getting ready for prom to have it looked at. I just wore ugly shoes and limped. My dress was purple so my ankle matched. I just thought it was so weird how it hurt so bad as a sprain that I could bear no weight for almost two weeks, but I went to prom on a broken ankle and didn’t know.